


Shaky

by avianscribe



Series: Collection of Prompts [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Blood, Gen, Hurt Noctis Lucis Caelum, Hurt/Comfort, Phoenix Downs (Final Fantasy), Vignette, description of injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-07 13:25:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19210336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avianscribe/pseuds/avianscribe
Summary: Coming back after a phoenix down, Noctis is on pretty shaky ground.





	Shaky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [somewherealight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/somewherealight/gifts).



> Short and sweet, in response to Tumblr user @somewherealight's prompt, "Shaky", for my June 2019 Birth Month Writing Prompts celebration!

Death hurt, Noct decided.

Coming back from it hurt, too -- a different kind of pain, a burning that healed. 

Someone had used a phoenix down. 

Awareness came slowly. 

Touch came first: the rocks, where his legs rested against the ground; the pull of his shirt, damp with his own blood, clinging to his chest; the shifting fabric of someone else’s clothes against his face, where he was pressed into someone’s chest. The firm pressure of someone’s arm clutching around his shoulders. 

Taste and smell slowly joined it: the coppery flavor of blood in his mouth, the raw scent of it heavy in the air. Sound was next -- muffled at first, but clearer with each heartbeat: a battle, still waging a small distance away. Someone’s harsh breathing in his ear -- panicked, maybe.  

In the near distance, he could hear Gladio's grunt as he swung his sword, and the retort of Prompto’s pistols.

“Come back to us, Highness,” Ignis murmured to him. 

“I’m here,” Noctis tried to say. He wasn’t sure it actually left his mouth. 

He must have made some kind of noise, though, because Ignis shifted. “Are you with us again?” 

Noctis felt a chill rush over him -- another healing draught, he thought. Ignis wouldn’t use that unless this was serious. Noctis tried to remember what had happened -- what they’d been fighting.

In his memory, the flash of lamplight along the blade of a katana. The grim, gaunt face of a ronin. 

The blade piercing his chest. 

He winced away from that particular memory; not wanting to remember collapsing, bleeding out on the ground while Ignis frantically called his name. While Gladio roared and Prompto wailed. 

“I’m so sorry,” Ignis was saying in his ear. “I wasn’t close enough.”

“You can’t always be close enough,” Noctis said. Why was his voice so weak?

Ignis gave a shuddering sigh. “Can you stand?”

“Give me a moment,” Noctis murmured.

“I don’t think we have a moment,” Ignis said, and sure enough, the battle’s noises were getting closer -- Prompto was sounding more frantic, Gladio more urgent. Then Ignis stood, and pulled Noctis up with him. 

Noctis tried to get his feet underneath him. He planted them against the ground, but his knees trembled. He took a few shaky steps, Ignis’s arm supporting him, and then stumbled and almost fell, nearly taking Ignis with him. 

“Forgive me, Highness,” Ignis said, then there were arms behind Noct’s knees as well as behind his shoulders, and he was lifted off his feet. 

Ignis moved quickly, dizzying. Noctis’s head swam, and he wondered if it was the blood loss.

Then the battle sounds faded altogether, and he became aware of Gladio’s heavy steps and breathing joining them on one side, and Prompto’s on the other. Ignis’s chest heaved beneath him, and Ignis’s collar tickled his nose with every step; the jostling of Ignis’s pace lolled his head back and forth. 

Noctis only recognized that they’d reached the car when Ignis set him back down on his feet and leaned him against it. His legs still shook beneath him, and he felt Gladio’s steadying arm around him while Ignis opened the car. Then they were all piling in -- settling Noctis in first, followed by Gladio, while the other two took their places in the front. Gladio pulled Noctis in so his head rested on his Shield’s shoulder. 

As soon as the Regalia purred to life, Noctis felt fatigue tug at him. He only barely heard Gladio say “Let’s get you some grub.” Then, in the security of his father’s car, knowing his companions were watching over him, he let sleep claim him.


End file.
